


We don't talk about it

by Verdande



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Light Angst, M/M, Maria Stark's A+ Parenting, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 09:40:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17077910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verdande/pseuds/Verdande
Summary: I’ve read, and loved, a lot of fics about Howard coming to the future, but I thought it would be interesting to bring Maria too, so this is that fic.Fair warning, Maria isn’t a good parent in this. I know she is in the comics and the little we’ve seen of her in MCU, but hey, this is the magic land of fanfic, and as a wise woman(?) once said, don’t like, don’t read.





	We don't talk about it

**Author's Note:**

> So, this takes place in this magic time after the first Avengers movie where Tony has invited all the Avengers to live with him, and he and Steve has done the whole misunderstanding and mutual pinning thing and is now together.
> 
> Also, English is not my first language, so I apologize for all the grammatical errors you’re probably going to find.

It is the fifth time it has happened now. And SHIELD is already used to it. Reed Richards machine is predicting the where and when with a 98,7 % accuracy. They pick her up before she even knows what is happening, and now she is sitting in a conference room at the Hellicarrier. A room decorated for this exact purpose. The room is bare, except for a table and two chairs. Since they discovered what was happening, Steve has been waiting for Howard to show up. But this, this is somehow worse. They didn't recognize her, and she didn't say anything, didn't even ask where, or when, she is. That's probably why SHIELD didn't do a DNA test at first. They didn't want to show their hand. Show her what science can do know. Not when there are other options available.

And so they called Steve. He doesn't know if they call him because he has an excellent memory for things like faces, or because when they hear the word past, they always think of him. Which is ridiculous, because everyone has a past, his is just a bit more past. But from the look of it, the clothes, hair, and makeup, this woman is only from somewhere around ten to twenty years ago.

 He is watching the women through a one-way mirror. Coulson is standing silently behind him, ready to give the woman's identity to Fury and everyone else who needs to know in case Steve recognizes her.

After his first look at her, Steve knows he has never seen her before, and yet she looks familiar. So he keeps looking, trying to place her. It's the eyes that give her away in the end, that makes him place her. Her eyes are all wrong to him, they're dead, completely devoid of any spark. At first, he doesn't get why that is wrong. It isn't like the rest of her are very passionate. She just looks bored, bored with the room, bored with life in general, bored with the SHIELD agent that gave her an ashtray and a pack of cigarettes, telling her not to smoke her own (something about the same number of cigarettes she came with must go back with her to her own time). She didn't even look at the agent when he spoke to her. Coulson showed him the surveillance tape of it, to see if that would help Steve place her. It didn't. From what Steve can see the ashtray is still empty. But more than bored, she just seems cold, not cold like Natasha, Natasha who can be scary, but also passionate and very protective of her friends (or teammates, as she pretends they are). But this woman, she is ice all the way through. And her eyes are wrong, except, it isn't her eyes.

"Call Tony" he tells Coulson finally, "get him here, tell him what has happened"

And Coulson barks an order into his communicator, and 15 minutes later, Tony is standing next to Steve. Looking at the women.

"She hasn't said anything?"

Steve shakes his head. Knows Tony knows this, but he is clearly trying to get his thoughts in order, buying time, before he does anything.

"What are the orders from good old one eye?"

"The same as the others" Coulson tells him. "No details, no information of the science and breakthroughs, but other than that..."

Tony just nods, and then he walks away from the mirror, to the door and into the room.

The woman lifts her head and looks at him.

"Anthony."

"Mother."

For a while the whole world stops. Or maybe not. Maybe just the room. But Steve is holding his breath, and he thinks that Coulson beside him is too.

"So, welcome to the future, have they told you anything?"

She shrugs, and lights up a cigarette

"Not interested."

"Right, do you want anything to eat or drink, or.."

Tony trails of just as she lets ash fall to the floor. That at least explains the empty ashtray.

"From this place, no thank you."

She looks around, as if the room she is in is a cockroach infected damp cellar, and not a perfectly clean, although spartan, conference room.

"What about a book, or a magazine, you're probably gonna be staying here for a couple of hours?"

She shakes her head.

"No I'm perfectly capable of entertaining myself for that time."

Tony gives a jerky nod, "Well I can get you some company then, if..."

She just looks at him, Steve can't see her eyes, can't read her, but Tony doesn't finish the sentence, he just walks out.

Natasha replaces him. Steve hadn't even noticed her showing up. She isn't in uniform, but in a dress. Maria Stark looks at her when she walks in, and smirks.

"So they send in a secretary to play babysitter."

"Not babysitter, no."

"Well, guard then if you prefer."

"You're not a prisoner."

"So I could walk out the door if I wanted?"

"No, we can't let you see the future."

"Of course. You know, the problem with these agencies and scientists is you all think everyone is out to steal your secrets. I really don't care about flying cars."

Steve almost smiles at that, but the sound Tony makes beside him isn't anywhere near being funny.

"Although, it could be interesting to speak with myself, is I around?"

"I don't think that would be a good idea."

"I'm dead then."

It isn't a question, and Natasha doesn't answer.

"I suppose Howard is glad then, the chance for a new model."

Her smile is ugly as she says it, and Natasha still doesn't speak, just sits there, silently.

"If you insist on someone keeping me company, at least send in Anthony, he, unlike you, have some class, even if he insists on hiding it."

Natasha stays still for a moment, but then stands up. But before she gets to the door Coulson walks in. Maria Stark starts to laugh, not a real one, and Steve who has heard Doctor Dooms evil maniac laugh, think that laugh is less frightening then the sound she is making.

"Oh my dear little boy."

And for a moment Coulson looks flabbergasted. Steve doesn't think anyone has ever called Coulson, dear, little or boy, not even when he was a little boy.

"I do hope you didn't pay for that suit, they should have paid you for taking it of their hands."

"It's Armani."

"It's from the racks."

Before Coulson can say anything else Tony steps back into the room. Steve didn't even notice him leaving his side.

But before he can take more that a step into the room Coulson places a hand on his shoulder.

"You don't have to Stark."

"It's fine."

And it isn't fine. Not even close. Tonys whole body is vibrating with tension. But Natasha and Coulson leave the room and come to stand next to Steve, watching.

"So, you're sure you don't want anything?"

She shakes her head once.

The silence only last for a couple of minutes, surprisingly it isn't Tony who breaks it.

"Are you still doing the whole robotics thing then?"

She makes a vague gesture with the hand holding her cigarette.

"Yeah"

"Working for your father at SI I assume."

"Well, kind of."

"Are you married?"

The question surprises Steve, but apparently not Tony. He just shakes his head.

"Dating someone then?"

"Yes."

"Is she at least from a good family?"

"He is from Brooklyn."

For a moment Steve wonders if Tony is only dating him to spite his parents, but if he was, the fact that he is dating captain America would probably get their interest must more than the fact he is from Brooklyn. This is simply Tony, answering honestly what his mother wants to know.

"So your father is right, you have always been too soft to be a real man."

After that there are no more questions. Maria Stark sits perfectly still. Smoking another cigarette. Tony fidgets a bit, drums his fingers at the table. But that's it. It lasts for almost half an hour before Tony gets up and starts pacing. When he reaches the wall he turns around, walks a couple of steps back to the table, and fixes his gaze on her.

"Were you ever happy, with him?"

She smiles, bur her smile is cold, and so so fake. It's more a snarl than anything else.

"Happiness and love are delusions the average man and woman use to get them through life, they're not real."

"So why did you marry him, his look, the prestige, the money -"

She is out of her chair and across the room in seconds, ending in front of Tony and raising her hand, Steve flinches, but Tony doesn’t move an inch. The smack is loud through the speakers. But the slap itself isn't what make Steve fist his hand until his nails is drawing blood and his knuckles turn white. It is the way it was delivered. Cold and precise, and like something that has happened many, to many, times before. By now it's simply a habit.

"We don't talk about money."

"Right, I forgot, the 'we don't talk about list' perhaps because it so fucking long, and you add thing to it constantly, you don't want to talk abut me dating a guy from Brooklyn, or you dying or the fact you're in the fucking future."

"Language Anthony."

She has returned to her chair and is looking at Tony.

"And no, I do not believe I will be able to fix you in the half hour or so before I disappear, my dead do not interest me and neither does the future, I prefer the past, must more sophisticated."

"So what, you prefer to sit here and discus Greek literature?"

She just looks at Tony, an after a brief pause, he simply sighs and sits down in the chair opposite her again.

"Fine."

And for the next half hour, they discus the Iliad in Italian. Steve doesn't know enough of the language to understand what they're saying. But the image is almost grotesque. Tony is one of the most passionate people Steve knows, and Maria Stark was the one who suggested the subject, and they clearly have both read the Iliad enough time to quote from it, and Italian is supposed to be a passionate language, at least Steve always thought so. And yet, the discussion is more like them following a manuscript then a real conversation between two real people.

And then she is gone, as suddenly as she appeared. Beside him both Natasha and Coulson are speaking into their communicators, making sure everyone knows she is gone, making Reed record the new data, and checking that the future is still as it is supposed to be. But Steve just stares at Tony. He is still sitting at the table. As Steve watches Tony reaches forward, drags the pack of cigarettes towards him and lights one up. Then he leans back in the chair, produces his phone from a pocket, and starts scrolling through it.

After a minute Steve joins him, taking a cigarette himself. He never really smoked but right now he needs something to occupy his hands or he might start smashing things.

He puts out his cigarette in the ashtray when it's down to the stub.

"We should go home to the mansion."

Tonys hand, holding his cigarette number two shakes faintly, but then he stubs out the cigarette next to Steve's and shakes his head.

"No, I should go back to SI, I was in R&D doing a ..."

He trails of, and Steve mentally kicks himself. He can hear the end of the sentence, in Maria Stark voice, _doing a robotic thing._ And of course Tony doesn't want to go back to the mansion, the mansion his parents lived in. So instead he stands up and reach out a hand to Tony.

"We should get something to eat then."

And Tony takes his hand, letting Steve guide him out of the room. They're stopped by Natasha who places a hand in the middle of Tony's chest, almost over the arc reactor, and says something in Russian which makes Tony smile at her, and Coulson freezing in the middle of his report to Hill, starring at her. But then he gathers himself, and nods at them

"We'll take care of the briefing, I might have some extra questions, but they can wait until tomorrow."

It not only a dismissal, it's a permission for Tony to leave, and Steve makes sure he takes it.

 

They don't talk about what just happened over dinner, or during the movie that night. They're all there, and they're all acting natural, and Tony doesn't bring it up.

And if Tony is clinging to him that night when Steve is above him thrusting into him, well Steve doesn't mention it, and Tony doesn't mention the dozen of ' _I love you'_ Steve whispers into his skin.

It isn't until Tony is lying with his head on Steve's chest, and Steve's arms around him, the sweat from their lovemaking cooled on their skins that he mentions her.

"I don't believe she is right, about happiness and love. I just don't think she ever had it, not with him."

Steve doesn't know why this is what Tony chose to ask her about, and why this is what he is thinking of, not anything to do with him or whether she ever loved her own son, but with Howard, but he still tries to answer.

"They didn't get married for the right reasons."

"What are the right reasons"

"If you love each other and want to spend the rest of your life together."

"That simple?"

"Yeah, that simple."

Tony falls silent after that, and Steve is almost asleep when:

"Steve?"

"Hmmm."

"I love you."

He smiles into Tonys hair.

"I know."


End file.
